


The Ease of Comfort

by delighted



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: (also just sweet comfort fluff), (more like realizing they already were together), Comfort, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Sweet, They're both sleepy and lazy about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 19:09:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15588732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: They just kind of fall into it, the sleeping together... the kisses, being a couple. Maybe because it’s been there all along....





	The Ease of Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> I think I’ve written several versions of something like this, but evidently I needed more... which is hardly surprising.
> 
> If you want a soundtrack for reading, look up "Knuddelmaus" by Ulrich Schnauss. That's what I listened to while I was writing this.

The first time it happened was kind of by accident. Well, technically that’s not really true, they’d basically been doing it all along... but it had been (mostly) platonic before that one night. Mostly. Okay, maybe not really. But they’d thought of it that way. Alright maybe that’s not really true, but they’d tried to act like it. Well, Danny had. Although maybe that wasn’t even really fair.

The point is, they didn’t willingly step down this path. It was more that it was there, and maybe there wasn’t anywhere else to go, maybe it was late and they were tired, maybe it had been a long week (they were all long weeks these days), maybe they hadn’t been sleeping well, maybe fourteen other things....

Or maybe, just maybe, they allowed it to happen so they could stop holding back from _letting_ it happen. Because maybe... maybe the effort it had begun taking—had been taking—to keep them from giving in, going after what was sitting right there, staring them in the face in a way that clearly said _Hello, what the fuck are you doing, not going for this?_ well, maybe that was just something neither of them was capable of doing anymore.

Alternately, maybe somehow they both simply forgot that they weren’t actually a couple. Just for long enough to let it happen.

Because that’s kind of exactly what it ended up being like.

It was a typical Saturday. They did some errands, went surfing, grilled some fish, watched a movie, and fell asleep against each other on the sofa. Just exactly like they’d done on countless similar Saturdays. Danny stirred, felt his knee crick uncomfortably and groaned, which woke Steve enough that he mumbled they should go up to bed. And so they did. They even brushed their teeth—yes, Danny keeps a tooth brush at Steve’s. Has for years. Then they fell in bed together, cuddled back up like they’d been on the sofa, maybe a little more so (you know, being in a bed), and fell promptly asleep. Steve might have even nestled a bit into Danny’s neck, maybe he half whispered something along the lines of _Love you, Danno_. To be fair, he did that a lot. The whispering _Love you_. Not the nuzzling bit. That bit was new, but maybe it didn’t exactly feel new. Or illicit. Which possibly should have said something, but in all honesty really just didn’t.

In the morning, after a rather stunningly wonderful night of restful slumber, they woke slowly, lazily, Steve on his back, Danny at his side, hand resting on Steve’s chest, idly fingering the chest hairs there, thinking vaguely to himself that something seemed a little different. It wasn’t till Steve looked fondly down and him and it seemed to Danny that it felt like they should _kiss_... it wasn’t till then that it occurred to him that maybe there was something slightly odd about what they were doing.

It seemed to occur to Steve in the same moment, because he smirked, shrugged, let out a little sigh. “Coffee?” He offered, his tone a tad reluctant, but that might have had more to do with him not wanting to lose the contact they’d maintained in bed. Danny sure didn’t.

But he nodded, and if he got up and brushed his teeth while Steve went down to make coffee, well, he’d do that at home—there wasn’t any hidden desire or anything behind the action, nope.

Somehow, after Steve came back to bed and they had their coffee, propped up against each other in bed, half naked, and planned their Sunday such that they’d wind up at Danny’s that evening, and nothing seemed odd or strained or uncomfortable or anything other than just kinda normal. Until evening, when there was this one moment where it maybe should have been a bit strained, a bit awkward, finagling around the getting-themselves-into-the-same-bed thing... but in this really odd way it wasn’t odd at all, it just happened. Almost as though it had happened before... no need to even think about it, like they were somehow accessing a set of physical, muscle memories that really shouldn’t exist, not in this universe, and yet somehow they did. Or they just didn’t matter, and when Steve kissed Danny on the head as they settled into each others’ arms, that didn’t seem odd either. And for one half second Danny thought to himself that it should maybe seem a little weird, but his body overwhelmingly said _Nah, seems about right_ , and he fell solidly asleep.

That week, of course, life kinda wound up getting in the way, as life so often does. So it wasn’t until Friday that they found themselves confronted with what they had been doing—or rather had been _not_ doing all week.... And Steve narrowed his eyes at Danny, and maybe it seemed like they were going to talk about it, but then Danny yawned, and Steve pulled him up and out the door, and they fell right back into that old pattern—take out, movie, falling asleep on the sofa... only maybe Steve caught them before they went that far and got them, a little more awake than usual, up the stairs and into bed as though he’d been doing it for years.

The pattern continued for... quite a long time, really. Friday nights, weekends Danny didn’t have the kids, and sometimes on week nights when they just fell easily into it. They never pushed it, never forced it. It was never awkward, and it never went very far, not beyond forehead kisses or sleepy neck nuzzles. Sometimes they went to Danny’s, sometimes to Steve’s... there wasn’t ever much thought behind it, never any planning... never any talking. They never said “So, my bed or yours?” And neither of them ever asked if the other wanted it. They just somehow knew. Or maybe it wasn’t even linked to a desire so much as something slightly less intentional. Almost like a biorhythm. Which is a lot how it felt—a natural following of something natural. Or maybe that’s what they told themselves, to feel easy about it.

Thing was, it really was just very easy.

So was taking the next step. If it could even be considered a next step. In so far as it was something else they’d technically already been doing kind of all along... maybe taken half an inch further.

One night they were out with the team, somewhere a little more upscale than the usual benches and beer bottles at Kamekona’s, which in all fairness, they’d not done in kind of a long while. So maybe that prompted the shift. Or maybe it was some other natural impulse connected to the whole sleeping-together thing. But they settled into the back curve of the bar’s corner booth, bodies pressing together as they’d grown accustomed to in bed, and when Steve’s arm went around Danny’s shoulder, Danny’s hand came up to meet Steve’s, and he held on, softly thumbing his palm in some sort of hypnotic way he just couldn’t seem to stop, so he didn’t bother trying.

Maybe the inside of one’s palm is something more erotic than Danny’d ever thought, or maybe it was the Mai Tais in place of their usual beers, but there was this extra energy between them that night. Something that insisted, gently but firmly, on being burned off. Or dealt with, faced, admitted. So before going to bed they found themselves out on the lanai, making out in an easy, almost lazy fashion, just simply as though it was some new but logical step before getting into bed. Their kisses were warm and soothing, and felt slightly worn at the edges, pliant with use, familiar and comfortable. And probably it would have been so easy to do more than just kiss, but it was almost as though there wasn’t a need for it, or that path was somehow blocked, the rhythm wasn’t set up for it yet.

So they fell into bed like they’d been doing, and it was as though nothing had changed... except that when they woke up in the morning they kissed—just a light, morning kind of kiss. And when Steve brought Danny coffee, he delivered it with a kiss. And when they left for work, they stood inside the front door for a while, kissing almost absently. Not with any push behind it, just as though it was something they should do before they started their day.

And again, at the end of the day, while they stood over the stove in the kitchen cooking dinner, they kissed softly between sips of beer. And when they settled into bed that night, Steve’s nuzzles at Danny’s neck progressed to more kissing, and again, it felt like it could go further. And maybe it was the first time something like reality hit them, because when Steve pulled back, and he smiled, maybe less sleepy than he should have been, something tingly passed over Danny’s body and it felt like he wanted _more_. But he couldn’t tell what more he wanted, just slowly felt desire building within him, and he started to follow it, blindly almost, like he was following a trail of clues—now put your hand here, kiss this bit, delve deeper, linger here.... And Steve was right at each step with him, not following, not leading, but as though he were reaching the same conclusions at the same moments, and it was just hands and mouths, but it was by far the most intimate and somehow advanced first time Danny’d ever had. Which was no doubt in part because it didn’t feel like a first time at all.

They didn’t fall asleep after. For a while it seemed like they might, and after they cleaned up they kissed some more, almost as though they needed it to bookend the sex, to protect it somehow, to celebrate it, this one-more-new-thing that just didn’t feel new at all. And maybe they should have talked about it, about something, about what they were doing, but even Danny wasn’t sure a conversation about it would mean anything more than the unspoken bits already did... and in some way, it might actually take away from it, harm it, burst something... not ruin it—there was a clear sense this was simply too strong to be broken by anything. But maybe it was like that same sense that had led everything else... and now was simply not the time for talking about it. Soon, when that path had been laid. But not now.

But they stayed awake, and they were aware of every breath, every inch of contact between their bodies, melding together as though they were less two separate bodies, and more one being with two parts. Which maybe explained a whole lot—not just about this intimacy, but about all of it, all of them, all they’d been the past many years. Because there had been that inevitability about them from the very beginning. And yeah, there were rough bits, of course there always are. But never any doubt. Even in the darkest moments. It was their strength—and their weakness. And it didn’t matter, because it was, simply, them.

When morning came, and it didn’t feel as though they’d slept at all, though they probably got at least a little bit of rest, there was almost a moment of—we should do something _different_. Danny could see the thought echoed in Steve’s eyes as he hesitated before getting out of bed to go make coffee. And they paused. And it wasn’t even like they were considering it, maybe more listening to see if whatever was leading them down this path had anything to say, any direction to suggest, but there was only the sound of just-as-we-always-do, and as soon as they began their day in the same way they’d been doing, it was clearly the right thing.

And the day went as most days do, with a few pauses here and there, and in some of those pauses they snuck some kisses, only _snuck_ is maybe not the most accurate word as neither of them actually looked to see that no one was watching, but they’d not done that before—kiss outside of the house. So that was another thing that should have felt new but didn’t. Danny had to actually talk himself through the fact that they hadn’t done it yet, which just seemed so difficult to imagine.

They grabbed lunch at Kamekona’s, but took the food out further toward the water, sitting on a log under a tree near the rocks, and they ate off each others’ plates, and sipped from the same water bottle, and it was all things they’d done before, countless times, and yet somehow it felt new.

Late that night when they finally made it back to Danny’s after a case that had gone a little rough, they were both bloodied and a little bashed, and they showered and bandaged each other up, which was something else that they were well practiced at. And something else that felt totally new. Steve was always tender with his first aid—which had long since ceased to surprise Danny, who tended to be a little rough with his, mostly because he tended to be upset with Steve for how hurt he was. And maybe he was just imagining it, maybe he was more hurt than he’d thought, but Steve seemed less tender than usual, while he himself found he was gentler with Steve—more mindful of the pain he was in, less focused on Danny’s own unacknowledged hurt at the injuries displayed before him. Then again, maybe it was just that they kissed after. Which really did seem to help.

Danny’d wanted to make dinner for them that night, but they were too hungry and too tired, so Steve didn’t even ask, just took Danny’s phone from him and entered an order from Danny’s local. Which definitely was something new—Danny was surprised Steve even knew how to use the app.

Something else that was new was that they didn’t turn on the TV for something mindless to keep their heads out of the pit they tended to fall in after cases like that. Danny put on some music while Steve opened a bottle of wine, and while they waited for the pizza, they sat together on the sofa, sipping a red, and talking through some of the day. Which felt surprisingly wonderful, and actually helpful, and not just for Danny, but he could tell it helped Steve as well, and that felt stunningly new—because it was.

When the pizza arrived, they ate it not out of the box with bare feet kicked up on the coffee table, but off of actual plates, while sitting at the dining room table. And Steve had gotten salad, and breadsticks, and wings, and it felt more like a meal than _just pizza_ , but more than that... it felt more like a _date_ than just them having a meal.

Which is maybe what led Danny to, finally, put words to it. And all he asked was _So are we dating now?_ And Steve responded with a smirk and a glint in his eye, as though he’d been waiting for Danny to notice, and said _Yeah I think that would be nice._ And that was all they said about it, until they were in bed, when Danny suggested they take it to the next level, and Steve pushed up on his arms from where he’d been kissing him, and—swear to god, utter straight face—said _Alright, I’ll take you ring shopping this weekend_ , and Danny nearly had a heart attack right there. Steve kissed him down from it, grinning and whispering _Or whenever you’re ready for that_ , and petting his hair in a way that was totally new and fantastically soothing.

And they did take it to that next—other next—level that night, and the next several nights after, and soon they were moving things into each other’s houses, and they were—and maybe _finally_ is a good word to use here—finally looking like the couple it now seemed they’d been so much all along.

One night, not too long after, Steve came home a little later than usual and didn’t say anything about it, and when they were getting ready for bed that night, Danny saw it. On his bed side table. That tell-tale box. And Steve saw him notice it, and he shrugged and said, _It’s there, whenever you’re ready. Or not. Up to you. But I’m all in. Always have been. Just need you to know that_. And Danny _did_ know, he saw—because it should have felt new and it didn’t. But he wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready for that again, and yet he knew it would be different with Steve. Partly he wasn’t sure he _wanted_ it, but all the same it meant everything that Steve was willing... and maybe that was all he really needed. Which, as soon as he thought it, he knew—that was exactly why Steve had done it.

So he left it there, the box, and he never even looked inside, because that just wasn’t something that mattered at all. Because everything that mattered he already had—and had had, all along.


End file.
